Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I wasn't trying to explain the delays. Only trying to point out that Amazon's "wholesale" purchasing/reselling of physical books (with a BPH they have a contract with) is no different than the purchasing/reselling of BPH ebooks (sans agency). Neither involves paying for a certain sized "lot" of products and then buying another lot when that one is all sold. BPHs puts a crap-ton of books in Amazon's warehouses and let them sell them pretty-much any way they see fit. And up until agency, ebooks worked pretty much the same way. Any difference in "models" was semantic-only.
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On what do you base this that Amazon doesn't pay for the pbooks?
I grant that in reality money doesn't go from hand to hand and that it is an accounting matter, but when Amazon gets 20 copies of Hachette pbook, it shows on Amazon's account books as a debit. Eventually Amazon does exchange the cash, but because Amazon is on the accrual method and not cash basis, the debit is the same, in practical terms, as paying immediately.
The terms are usually 90 days (although that may have changed since I was last involved in these matters), which is why bookstores would go through their inventory at the end of 90 days and return unsold copies for a credit against the debit. When the credit is issued, a check is issued for the balance owed. But all along the store's accounting books show that the store owes the publisher for the full number of copies "bought".
It is just like buying something using a credit card. Until the invoice comes due, you owe for what you have bought -- it is a debit pending payment or credit for a return. But you have "bought" the item in the interim.